Service transmission method, device, and system

ABSTRACT

A service transmission method is provided. A first base station, which establishes an RRC connection with a UE, sends a request message to a second base station which is at least one of base stations serving the UE, where the request message includes service information, where the service information includes QoS information of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, and the request message instructs the second base station to perform resource configuration according to service information. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration list information of the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/599,771, filed on Jan. 19, 2015, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/CN2012/078944, filed on Jul. 20, 2012.All of the afore-mentioned patent applications are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the communications field, and inparticular, to a service transmission method, a device, and a system.

BACKGROUND

A Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is a mobile communications networkactively researched by manufacturers in the Third Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP) organization, and is also an evolved network of aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). A purpose of the LTEnetwork is to provide a network capable of reducing a delay, improving auser data rate, increasing a system capacity, and reducing coveragecosts.

Currently, each user terminal, e.g, user equipment (UE), in the LTEnetwork may be served by multiple serving base stations, in which aprimary base station establishes a radio resource control (RRC)connection with the UE, and radio bearers (RB) corresponding to allservices of the UE are all established by the primary base station,while other serving base stations only forward, at a physical layer,services sent by the primary base station, to the UE, and do not need toestablish RBs. Consequently, resources (for example, an air interface,packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity resources, and radio linkcontrol (RLC) entity resources) of the other serving base stationscannot be utilized properly. However, because services of the UEcurrently grow fast, there is increasingly heavy pressure on the primarybase station, resulting in low utilization of network resources.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a service transmissionmethod, a device, and a system, which may improve utilization of networkresources.

A first aspect of the present invention provides a service transmissionmethod, which may include:

sending, by a first base station, a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, the offload base station is at least one base station inbase stations serving the UE, and the request message instructs theoffload base station to perform resource configuration according to theat least one piece of service information; and

sending, by the first base station, a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station, so thatthe UE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

A second aspect of the present invention provides another servicetransmission method, which may include:

receiving, by an offload base station, a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE; and

configuring, by the offload base station, a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

A third aspect of the present invention provides another servicetransmission method, which may include:

receiving, by a UE, a configuration message sent by a first basestation, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, where the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE, and the offload base station is at leastone base station serving the UE; and

configuring, by the UE, the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a service transmissionsystem, which includes a first base station, an offload base station,and a UE, where:

the first base station is a base station that establishes an RRCconnection with the UE, and the first base station includes a firstsending unit and a second sending unit, where:

the first sending unit is configured to send a request message to theoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information; and

-   -   the second sending unit is configured to send a configuration        message to the UE, where the configuration message includes        configuration list information of the RB and/or cell information        of the offload base station, so that the UE configures the        corresponding RB according to the configuration message;

the offload base station is a base station serving the UE, and theoffload base station includes a second receiving unit and a secondconfiguring unit, where:

the second receiving unit is configured to receive the request messagesent by the first base station, where the request message includes theat least one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes the QoS information of the service and/or the configurationinformation of the RB, and the first base station is the base stationthat establishes the RRC connection with the UE; and

the second configuring unit is configured to configure the resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation; and

the UE includes a third receiving unit and a third configuring unit,where:

the third receiving unit is configured to receive the configurationmessage sent by the first base station, where the configuration messageincludes the configuration list information of the RB and/or the cellinformation of the offload base station, where the first base station isthe base station that establishes the RRC connection with the UE, andthe offload base station is the at least one base station serving theUE; and

the third configuring unit is configured to configure the correspondingRB according to the configuration message.

In the foregoing technical solutions, a first base station sends arequest message to an offload base station, where the request messageincludes at least one piece of service information, where the serviceinformation includes QoS information of a service and/or configurationinformation of an RB; the offload base station configures a resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation; the first base station sends a configuration message to theUE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the RB corresponding to theconfiguration information. Thereby, the first base station may send theservice of the UE to the offload base station, so that the offload basestation sends the service to the UE. In this way, resources of theoffload base station are utilized properly, and utilization of networkresources is improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 to FIG. 31 are schematic flowcharts or structural diagrams ofembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart of a service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1,the method includes the following:

101. A first base station sends a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes quality ofservice (QoS) information of a service and/or configuration informationof an RB, the first base station is a base station that establishes anRRC connection with the UE, the offload base station is at least onebase station in base stations serving the UE, and the request messageinstructs the offload base station to perform resource configurationaccording to the at least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

In this way, the offload base station may configure the PDCP layer, RLClayer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information.

Optionally, the service information may further include: at least one ofconfiguration coordination information of radio resources of the RB, anidentifier of the RB, an identifier of a radio access bearer (RAB), andoffload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information.

Optionally, the RB-based data offload information indicates that thefirst base station sends service data unit (SDU) data of the PDCP layerof the service of the UE to the offload base station. Then after theoffload base station receives the at least one piece of serviceinformation, the offload base station may perform the correspondingresource configuration according to the at least one piece of serviceinformation to configure the PDCP layer, RLC layer, Medium AccessControl (MAC) layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to theat least one piece of service information. The packet-based data offloadinformation indicates that the first base station sends service dataunit (SDU) data of the RLC layer of the service of the UE to the offloadbase station. Then after the offload base station receives the at leastone piece of service information, the offload base station may performthe corresponding resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information to configure the RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base station performsthe corresponding resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information to configure the RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one service, andthen the first base station configures the PDCP layer, RLC layer, andphysical layer of the RB.

Optionally, the offload base station in step 101 may be a plurality ofoffload base stations. Then sending, by the first base station, the atleast one piece of service information to the plurality of offload basestations may specifically be sending, by the first station, the at leastone piece of service information, which is the same, to the plurality ofoffload base stations, or sending, by the first base station, the atleast one piece of service information, which is different, to theplurality of offload base stations.

In an optional implementation manner, the request message may furtherinclude: an identifier of the UE. In this implementation manner, theoffload base station may be enabled to send the service to the UE morequickly.

In an optional implementation manner, after step 101, the method mayfurther include the following:

The first base station defines an offload rule for data packets of theservice of the UE, where the offload rule indicates a transmission basestation for each data packet of the service of the UE, where thetransmission base station is the first base station or the offload basestation.

Specifically, when the resource configuration corresponding to the atleast one piece of service information in step 101 is a resourceconfiguration of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or whenthe configuration information of the RB includes configurationinformation of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or when theoffload indication information includes packet-based data offloadinformation, which indicates that the first base station sends SDU dataof the RLC layer of the service of the UE to the offload base stationwhile the service of the UE includes multiple data packets, the firstbase station may define an offload rule for the data packets of theservice of the UE, where the offload rule indicates a transmission basestation for each data packet of the service of the UE. For example, ifthe service of the UE includes four data packets, the offload rule mayindicate that among the four data packets, even data packets aretransmitted by the offload base station, and odd data packets aretransmitted by the first base station.

102. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station, so thatthe UE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration message, the UE mayconfigure the corresponding RB. When the configuration information ofthe RB in the at least one piece of service information includes theconfiguration information of the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer, the configuration message includes the configurationinformation of the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layerof the RB corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation, and the UE may configure the resource configurationcorresponding to the offload base station, where the resourceconfiguration specifically includes the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAClayer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least onepiece of service information. When the configuration information of theRB in the at least one piece of service information includes theconfiguration information of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physicallayer, the configuration information includes the configurationinformation of the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layerof the RB corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation, but in this case, the configuration information of the PDCPlayer included in the configuration message corresponds to the firstbase station, while at least two pieces of configuration information ofthe RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer are included in theconfiguration message and respectively correspond to the first basestation and the offload base station; and after receiving theconfiguration message, the UE may configure the PDCP layer, RLC layer,MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to the at leastone piece of service information, where at least two RLC entities, MACentities, and physical entities are configured at the RLC layer, MAClayer, and physical layer and respectively correspond to the first basestation and the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, the configuration list informationof the RB includes:

the configuration list of the RB includes configuration information ofat least one RB, where the configuration information of the RB includesat least one of the following items:

configuration information of a PDCP entity, configuration information ofan RLC entity list, and MAC configuration information, a logical channelconfiguration message, and physical layer configuration informationcorresponding to each RLC entity in the RLC entity list; an identifierof the service; the offload indication information; the offload rule;and configuration information of radio resources.

Optionally, the configuration information of the radio resources mayinclude: at least one of a physical cell identifier, a logical cellidentifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequency information, carrierinformation, radio resource block information, subcarrier information,subframe information, time-domain information, and space-domaininformation.

It should be noted that: the request message sent to the offload basestation in step 101 includes at least one piece of service informationand the offload base station performs the resource configuration of theat least one RB upon reception of the request message. Because theconfiguration list information of the RB includes the configurationinformation of the at least one RB. Therefore, the UE configuresresources corresponding to the resource configuration of the at leastone RB configured by the offload base station.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration information of the RB, theUE may perform the resource configuration, and specifically configurethe PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RBcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information, where atleast two RLC entities, MAC entities, and physical entities areconfigured at the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer andrespectively correspond to the first base station and the offload basestation. Alternatively, the UE configures the resource configurationcorresponding to the offload base station, where the resourceconfiguration specifically includes the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAClayer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least onepiece of service information.

In the foregoing technical solution, a first base station sends arequest message to an offload base station, where the request messageincludes at least one piece of service information, where the serviceinformation includes QoS information of a service and/or configurationinformation of an RB; and the first base station sends a configurationmessage to a UE, where the configuration message includes configurationlist information of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message. In this way, the service of the UE may be sent tothe UE through the first base station and/or offload base station. Incomparison with the prior art in which the service is sent to the UEuniformly by one base station, in the present invention, resources ofthe first base station and offload base station may be utilizedproperly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2,the method includes the following:

201. A first base station sends a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, the offload base station is at least one base station inbase stations serving the UE, and the request message instructs theoffload base station to perform resource configuration according to theat least one piece of service information.

202. The first base station receives a response message returned by theoffload base station, where the response message includes an identifierof the UE, and a status message and/or an indication message; where thestatus message includes a status message for rejecting the requestmessage, or a status message for receiving the request message, or astatus message for modifying the request message; and the indicationmessage includes an identifier and/or configuration information of an RBwhose resource configuration is accepted and/or an identifier of acorresponding RAB, and/or an identifier and/or configuration informationof an RB whose resource configuration is rejected and/or an identifierof a corresponding RAB.

Optionally, after the offload base station receives the request message,the offload base station may return a response message to the first basestation according to a resource status and/or load condition of theoffload base station, where the response message includes the identifierof the UE, and the status message and/or the indication message. Byperforming step 202, network resources may be maximized.

Optionally, the status message is used to indicate whether the offloadbase station receives the request message sent by the first basestation. A specific case may be that the request message is received,that is, the resource configuration indicated in the request message isconfigured, and in this case, the status message is specifically thestatus message for receiving the request message. The status message mayalso be that the request message sent by the first base station isrejected, that is, the resource configuration in the request message isnot configured, and in this case, the status message is specifically thestatus message for rejecting the request message. The status message mayalso be that the request message is modified, that is, only a part ofthe resource configuration in the request message is configured, and inthis case, the status message is specifically the status message formodifying the request message, and the status message may specificallyinclude an identifier and/or configuration information of an RB whoseresource configuration is accepted and/or an identifier of acorresponding RAB. In this way, after receiving the status message, thefirst base station learns that the offload base station accepts theresource configuration.

Optionally, the indication message is specifically used to indicate anRB whose resource configuration is received by the offload base stationor an RB whose resource configuration is rejected, and may specificallyinclude the identifier and/or configuration information of the RB whoseresource configuration is accepted by the offload base station and/orthe identifier of the corresponding RAB, and/or the identifier and/orconfiguration information of the RB whose resource configuration isrejected and/or the identifier of the corresponding RAB. Assuming thatthe request message includes resource configurations of two RBs, afterthe offload base station receives the request message, the offload basestation determines, according to the resource status and/or loadcondition of the offload base station, whether to configure the resourceconfigurations of the two RBs in the request message. For example, whenthe resource configuration of only one RB is allowed to be configuredaccording to the resource status and/or load condition of the offloadbase station, the indication message includes an identifier and/orconfiguration information of an RB whose resource configuration isaccepted and/or an identifier of a corresponding RAB, and/or anidentifier and/or configuration information of an RB whose resourceconfiguration is rejected and/or an identifier of a corresponding RAB.The indication message may specifically be a list. For example, anidentifier and/or configuration information of an RB and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB in each second list in the list isused to indicate an RB whose resource configuration is received, and anidentifier and/or configuration information of an RB and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB in each third list in the list is usedto indicate an RB whose resource configuration is rejected.

Optionally, after the first base station receives the response messagereturned by the offload base station, the RB whose resourceconfiguration is rejected in the response message may be configured, andthe resource configuration of the RB may be specifically configured bythe first base station; or the first base station sends a requestmessage corresponding to the resource configuration of the RB to anotheroffload base station, so that the another offload base stationconfigures the resource configuration of the RB.

203. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station, so thatthe UE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

In an optional implementation manner, the method may further include thefollowing:

The first base station sends the service of the UE to the offload basestation, so that the offload base station sends the service to the UE.

In this way, the service of the UE may be sent by multiple basestations.

Optionally, when step 202 does not exist, the method may also includestep 204.

In an optional implementation manner, after step 203, the method mayfurther include the following:

The first base station sends a cross-cell or cross-carrier schedulingindication and the cell information of the offload base station to theUE within a previous on-duration in which the UE wakes to monitor aphysical downlink control channel before the offload base station sendsthe service to the UE, so that the UE monitors a cell that belongs tothe offload base station.

Optionally, before the UE receives the service sent by a network side,the network side configures a discontinuous reception (DRX) parameterfor the UE, where the parameter indicates an on-duration or sleep timeof the UE in a DRX cycle. For example, a DRX cycle is 30 ms, and theparameter may indicate that the on-duration of the UE is 5 ms, and thatthe sleep time is 25 ms, that is, in a DRX cycle, it takes only 5 ms forthe UE to monitor a physical downlink control channel of a cell. Becauseby default, the UE monitors a cell that belongs to the first basestation within an on-duration, the first base station sends a cross-cellor cross-carrier scheduling indication and the cell information of theoffload base station corresponding to the scheduling indication to theUE within a previous on-duration of the UE before the offload basestation sends the service to the UE, so that the UE monitors a cell thatbelongs to the offload base station within a next on-duration.

Optionally, the first base station may calculate, according to theresource configuration configured by the offload base station, the timeof sending data to the UE by the offload base station; or before theoffload base station sends data to the UE, the first base stationreceives an indication message sent by the offload base station, andafter receiving the indication message, the first base station sends across-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication and the cellinformation of the offload base station corresponding to the schedulingindication to the UE within the previous on-duration of the UE beforethe offload base station sends the service to the UE, so that the UEmonitors the cell that belongs to the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, when there are multiple offloadbase stations, and the offload base stations have different workingfrequencies, after step 201, the method may further include thefollowing:

The first base station configures a DRX parameter for the UE for eachworking frequency channel number of the offload base stations. Becausethe offload base stations have different working frequency channelnumbers, the UE may have multiple radio frequencies, and each radiofrequency matches each working frequency channel number of the offloadbase stations. After the UE receives the DRX parameter configured by thefirst base station, each radio frequency unit of the UE may enterdifferent on-durations and sleep time, which may save power consumption.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, a step of receiving, by the first base station, a responsemessage returned by the offload base station, is added. In this way, theoffload base station determines, according to the resource status and/orload condition of the offload base station, whether establishment of theRB in the request message sent by the first base station may beaccepted. Thereby, network resources of the offload base station may bemaximized, and utilization of network resources may be improved.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3,the method includes the following:

301. A first base station sends a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, the offload base station is at least one base station inbase stations serving the UE, and the request message instructs theoffload base station to perform resource configuration according to theat least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB may specificallyinclude configuration information of an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and aphysical layer of the RB. Specifically, the first base station may sendSDU data of the RLC layer of the service of the UE to the offload basestation.

302. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station, so thatthe UE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

Optionally, step 302 may be executed before step 303, or may also beexecuted at the same time with any one of steps 303, 304, and 305, ormay also be executed after step 305 and before step 306.

303. The first base station receives a resource status report messageand/or channel resource information of the offload base station sent bythe offload base station, and/or, the first base station receives aresource status report message and/or channel resource information ofthe offload base station sent by the UE; where the resource statusreport message includes the number of data packets that can be sentand/or the number of data packets waiting to be sent in a buffer, andthe channel resource includes at least one of a channel qualityindicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and a rankindicator (RI).

Optionally, the number of sent data packets may be specifically thenumber of data packets sent within a future specific time.

Optionally, step 303 may further include the following: The first basestation receives a resource status report and/or channel resourceinformation of the first base station sent by the UE, or the first basestation receives a resource status report and/or channel resourceinformation of each cell that belongs to the first base station sent bythe UE.

Optionally, step 303 may be specifically that: the first base stationreceives a resource status report message and/or channel resourceinformation of each cell that belongs to the offload base station sentby the offload base station, and/or the first base station receives aresource status report message and/or channel resource information ofeach cell that belongs to the offload base station sent by the UE.

304. The first base station determines a transmission capability of theoffload base station according to the resource status report messageand/or channel resource information.

Optionally, step 304 may specifically be calculating a transmissioncapability of each cell that belongs to the offload base station.

305. The first base station defines an offload policy for the datapackets of the service of the UE according to the capability of theoffload base station, where the offload policy indicates the number ofdata packets sent by the offload base station to the UE within aspecific time.

Optionally, when there are multiple offload base stations, the offloadpolicy indicates the number of data packets sent by each offload basestation to the UE within a specific time.

Assuming that the service of the UE includes service 1, while serviceinformation corresponding to service 1 is separately sent to two offloadbase stations, the offload policy may indicate transmission according totransmission capabilities of the two offload base stations, for example,instruct one of the two offload base stations to send ⅔ data packets,and the other offload base station to send ⅓ data packets.

Assuming that when service information of the service, including service1, of the UE, is sent to at least one offload base station, whileresource information corresponding to the service information includesthe configuration information of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physicallayer, that is, the first base station sends the SDU data of the RLClayer of the service of the UE to the offload base station, defining anoffload policy for the service in step 305 may specifically be definingthe offload policy according to the transmission capability of the firstbase station and the transmission capability of the offload basestation. For example, when the transmission capability of the offloadbase station is better than that of the first base station, the offloadpolicy indicates that the number of data packets of the servicetransmitted by the offload base station is greater than the number ofdata of the service transmitted by the first base station.

306. The first base station sends the offload policy to the UE, so thatthe UE learns the number of data packets sent by the offload basestation.

Optionally, when the UE receives the offload policy, if the UE receivesan offload rule (refer to the first embodiment) before receiving theoffload policy, the UE replaces the offload rule with the offloadpolicy.

307. The first base station sends data packets corresponding to thenumber of data packets of the service of the UE to the offload basestation, and the first base station sends data packets beyond the datapackets corresponding to the number of data packets of the service ofthe UE to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, by defining an offload policy, thenumber of data packets of a service of a UE transmitted by the offloadbase station may be determined dynamically according to resourceinformation of a base station to which an RB belongs. Therefore, networkresources may be utilized properly, and utilization of the networkresources is improved.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4,the method includes the following:

401. A first base station sends a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, the offload base station is at least one base station inbase stations serving the UE, and the request message instructs theoffload base station to perform resource configuration according to theat least one piece of service information.

Optionally, there are multiple offload base stations. The resourceconfiguration of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information includes resource configurations of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer of the RB, for example, theconfiguration information of the RB includes configuration informationof the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB indicates that datasent by the offload base station is the same as data sent by the firstbase station and/or another offload base station.

402. The first base station defines an allocation policy for redundancyversion (RV) numbers, where the allocation policy indicates a redundancyversion number used by a cell that participates in offload and belongsto the offload base station and an RV number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station; or theallocation policy indicates an RV number used by each time-domain and/orcode-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resource usedfor sending the service by a cell that participates in offload andbelongs to the offload base station and an RV number used by eachtime-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for sending the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station.

The time-domain resource may be, for example, subframe information; thefrequency-domain resource may be, for example, subcarrier information,and/or subcarrier group information and/or center frequency informationand/or carrier information and/or physical radio resource blockinformation.

Optionally, after the offload base station receives the service sent bythe first base station, the offload base station may encode the serviceby using the RV number. However, multiple cells may belong to theoffload base station. The allocation policy defined in step 402indicates an RV number used by each cell that belongs to the offloadbase station. When there are multiple offload base stations, theallocation policy may indicate an RV number used by each cell thatbelongs to each offload base station. Assuming that base stations towhich RBs corresponding to the service of the UE belong, include thefirst base station and an offload base station 1, while cells thatbelong to the first base station include a cell 1 and a cell 2, andcells that belong to the offload base station 1 include a cell 3 and acell 4, the allocation policy defined in step 402 may indicate that: theRV number used by the cell 1 is 0, the RV number used by the cell 2 is2, the RV number used by the cell 3 is 3, and the RV number used by thecell 4 is 1.

Optionally, the subframe may specifically be a corresponding subframe ofthe service, which is encoded by the offload base station. Because theencoding process may be considered as a part of a process of sending theservice by the offload base station to the UE, the subframe mayspecifically be a subframe for sending the service to the UE by theoffload base station. Assuming that the resource configuration of the RBcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information includesresource configurations of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layerof the RB, in this case, the first base station configures resourceconfigurations of the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physicallayer of the RB; that is, the service of the UE is sent to the UE byusing the first base station and the offload base station. However,cells that belong to the first base station include a cell 1, and cellsthat belong to the offload base station include a cell 2. Therefore, theallocation policy defined in step 402 may indicate that: the RV numberused by a subframe 1 of the cell 1 is 0, the RV number used by asubframe 2 of the cell 1 is 2, the RV number used by a subframe 3 of thecell 2 is 3, and the RV number used by a subframe 4 of the cell 2 is 1.

403. The first base station sends the allocation policy to the UE, sothat when the UE receives the service in a cell that belongs to theoffload base station or the first base station, the UE decodes thereceived service by using the RV number corresponding to the cell ordecodes the received service by using the RV number corresponding to thetime-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for receiving the service in the cell. Thetime-domain resource may be, for example, subframe information; thefrequency-domain resource may be, for example, subcarrier information,and/or subcarrier group information and/or center frequency informationand/or carrier information and/or physical radio resource blockinformation.

404. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB and/or cell information of the offload base station, so thatthe UE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

Optionally, the information sent in steps 403 and 404 may be included ina same message.

405. The first base station sends the service of the UE to at least twooffload base stations, so that the at least two offload base stationssend the service of the UE to the UE; or the first base station sendsthe service of the UE to at least one offload base station, so that theat least one offload base station sends the service of the UE to the UE,and the first base station sends the service of the UE to the UE.

Optionally, the service sent to the at least two offload base stationsin step 405 may be the same. In addition, the service sent to the atleast one offload base station may also be the same, and the servicesent by the first base station to the UE may also be the same as theservice sent to the at least one offload base station. In this way,multiple base stations may send the same service to the UE. Incomparison with the prior art in which a base station sends a service tothe UE for multiple times, in the present invention, resources ofmultiple base stations may be utilized properly.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: An allocation policy for RVnumbers is defined; and when the offload base station and the first basestation send a service to the UE, encoding is performed according to theallocation policy. Therefore, at least two base stations may sendservices to the UE, and the services sent by the base stations are thesame. In comparison with the prior art in which a base station sends aservice to the UE for multiple times, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, resources of each offload base station may be betterutilized.

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5,the method includes the following:

501. A first base station sends a request message to an offload basestation, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, the offload base station is at least one base station inbase stations serving the UE, and the request message instructs theoffload base station to establish the RB corresponding to the at leastone piece of service information.

502. The first base station sends a configuration message to the UE,where the configuration message includes configuration list informationof the RB corresponding to the service and/or cell information of theoffload base station, so that the UE configures the corresponding RBaccording to the configuration message.

For details about steps 501 and 502, refer to the implementation mannerprovided by the foregoing embodiment.

503. The first base station configures a measurement gap GAP parameterof the UE.

In an optional implementation manner, the GAP parameter may specificallyinclude:

at least one of a mode of the GAP, a measurement period of the GAP, thenumber of measurements within a specific period of the GAP, and a startposition of the GAP.

504. The first base station sends a measurement notification message tothe offload base station, where the measurement notification messageincludes an identifier of the UE, the GAP parameter, and start timeinformation of the GAP, and the measurement notification message is usedto notify the offload base station of measurement configurationinformation of at least one UE whose service is offloaded by the basestation.

When the offload base station receives the service sent by the firstbase station, the offload base station is forbidden to send the serviceto the UE when the GAP starts. Therefore, the offload base station sendsthe service to the UE within a time when the UE monitors a cell on anetwork side, so that the service sent by the offload base station canbe received by the UE.

505. The first base station sends the GAP parameter to the UE.

In this way, the UE may perform corresponding monitoring according tothe GAP parameter to save power consumption.

In an optional implementation manner, the method may specificallyfurther include the following:

The first base station sends the service of the UE to the offload basestation; and/or the first base station receives a response messagereturned by the offload base station; and/or the first base stationdefines an offload rule for data packets of the service of the UE;and/or the first base station receives a resource status report messageand/or channel resource information of the offload base station sent bythe offload base station, and/or, the first base station receiveschannel resource information of the offload base station sent by the UE;

the first base station determines a transmission capability of theoffload base station according to the resource status report messageand/or channel resource information;

the first base station defines an offload policy for the data packets ofthe service of the UE according to the capability of the offload basestation, where the offload policy indicates the number of data packetssent by the offload base station to the UE within a specific time;

the first base station sends the offload policy to the UE, so that theUE replaces the offload rule with the offload policy;

the first base station sends data packets corresponding to the number ofdata packets of the service of the UE to the offload base station;

the first base station sends data packets beyond the data packetscorresponding to the number of data packets of the service of the UE tothe UE; and/or the first base station defines an allocation policy forredundancy version numbers;

the first base station sends the allocation policy to the UE; and

the first base station sends the service of the UE to at least twooffload base stations, or the first base station sends the service ofthe UE to at least one offload base station, and the first base stationsends the service of the UE to the UE.

For a specific execution time relationship of the foregoing steps, referto the foregoing embodiment.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, steps of configuring a GAP parameter and sending ameasurement notification message to the offload base station and sendingthe GAP parameter to the UE are added; the offload base station sendsthe service to the UE only within a time when the UE monitors a cell ona network side, so that the service sent by the offload base station canbe received by the UE, and in addition, utilization of network resourcesis improved.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6,the method includes the following:

601. An offload base station receives a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

Optionally, the service information may further include: at least one ofconfiguration coordination information of radio resources of the RB, anidentifier of the RB, an identifier of a radio access bearer (RAB), andoffload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information.

Optionally, the RB-based data offload information indicates that thefirst base station sends SDU data of the PDCP layer of the service ofthe UE to the offload base station. Then after the offload base stationreceives the at least one piece of service information, the offload basestation may perform the corresponding resource configuration accordingto the at least one piece of service information to configure the PDCPlayer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB correspondingto the at least one piece of service information. The packet-based dataoffload information indicates that the first base station sends SDU dataof the RLC layer of the service of the UE to the offload base station.Then after the offload base station receives the at least one piece ofservice information, the offload base station may perform thecorresponding resource configuration according to the at least one pieceof service information to configure the RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base stationconfigures, according to the at least one piece of service information,the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding tothe at least one piece of service information, and then the first basestation configures the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physicallayer of the RB.

In an optional implementation manner, the request message may furtherinclude: an identifier of the UE.

602. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the offload base station may specifically configure the PDCPlayer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or RLC layer, MAClayer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least onepiece of service information.

In the foregoing technical solution, an offload base station receives arequest message sent by a first base station, and configures a resourceconfiguration corresponding to at least one piece of service informationin the request message. In this way, resources of the offload basestation are utilized properly, and utilization of network resources isimproved.

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7,the method includes the following:

701. An offload base station receives a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE.

702. The offload base station sends a response message to the first basestation, where the response message includes an identifier of the UE,and a status message and/or an indication message; where the statusmessage includes a status message for rejecting the request message, ora status message for receiving the request message, or a status messagefor modifying the request message; and the indication message includesan identifier and/or configuration information of an RB whose resourceconfiguration is accepted by the offload base station and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB, and/or an identifier and/orconfiguration information of an RB whose resource configuration isrejected by the offload base station and/or an identifier of acorresponding RAB.

Optionally, after the offload base station receives the request message,the offload base station may return a response message to the first basestation according to a resource status and/or load condition of theoffload base station, where the response message includes the identifierof the UE, and the status message and/or the indication message. Byperforming step 702, network resources may be maximized.

703. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

704. The offload base station receives the service of the UE sent by thefirst base station.

Optionally, when the resource configuration includes a PDCP layer, anRLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, step 703 may bespecifically receiving SDU data of the PDCP layer of the service of theUE sent by the first base station; or when the resource configurationincludes an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, step 703 maybe specifically receiving SDU data of the RLC layer of the service ofthe UE sent by the first base station.

The offload base station receives the service of the UE sent by thefirst base station (for example, the SDU data of the PDCP layer or RLClayer). In comparison with the prior art in which the service sent bythe first base station is received at the physical layer, this solutionreduces a delay and improves service transmission efficiency.

705. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

Optionally, when this embodiment does not include step 702, steps inthis embodiment are also feasible.

In an optional implementation manner, before step 705, the method mayfurther include the following:

The offload base station sends indication information to the first basestation, where the indication information instructs the first basestation to send a cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication andan identifier of the offload base station to the UE within a previouson-duration of the UE before the offload base station sends the serviceto the UE, so that the UE monitors a cell that belongs to the offloadbase station.

In an optional implementation manner, the method may further include:receiving the service sent by the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: The offload base stationreceives a service sent by the first base station, and sends the serviceto the UE; and the offload base station receives the service of the UEsent by the first base station (for example, SDU data of the PDCP layeror RLC layer). In comparison with the prior art in which the servicesent by the first base station is received at the physical layer, thissolution reduces a delay and improves service transmission efficiency.In addition, resources of the offload base station may be utilizedproperly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8,the method includes the following:

801. An offload base station receives a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB may specificallyinclude configuration information of an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and aphysical layer of the RB. Specifically, the first base station may sendSDU data of the RLC layer of the service of the UE to the offload basestation, and the offload base station may configure the RLC, MAC layer,and physical layer of the RB upon reception of the configurationinformation of the RB. In addition, the offload base station may alsoconfigure the RLC, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB according tothe QoS information of the service.

802. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the configuration information may specifically include theRLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer.

803. The offload base station generates a resource status report messageaccording to the offload base station; and/or, the offload base stationreceives channel resource information sent by the UE relative to theoffload base station, where the resource status report message includesthe number of data packets that can be sent and/or the number of datapackets waiting to be sent in a buffer, and the channel resourceincludes at least one of a CQI, a PMI, and an RI.

Optionally, the number of sent data packets is the number of datapackets sent within a future specific time.

804. The offload base station sends the resource status report messageand/or the channel resource information to the first base station, sothat the first base station calculates a transmission capability of theoffload base station and defines an offload policy according to thetransmission capability, where the offload policy indicates the numberof data packets of the service sent by the offload base station to theUE within a specific time.

Optionally, when the resource status report message and/or the channelresource information of the offload base station indicates that thetransmission capability of the offload base station is better than atransmission capability of the first base station, or better than atransmission capability of another offload base station, the offloadpolicy indicates that, within the specific time, the number of datapackets of the service sent by the offload base station to the UE isgreater than the number of data packets of the service sent by the firstbase station to the UE, or greater than the number of data packets ofthe service sent by the another offload base station to the UE.

805. The offload base station receives data packets corresponding to thenumber of data packets of the service that are sent by the first basestation.

Optionally, step 805 may be specifically that the offload base stationreceives, at the RLC layer, data packets corresponding to the number ofdata packets of the service that are sent by the first base station.After receiving the data packets, the offload base station sends thedata packets to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: The offload base stationsends a resource status report message and/or channel resourceinformation to the first base station, so that the first base stationcalculates a transmission capability of the offload base station anddefines an offload policy according to the capability of the offloadbase station; the offload base station then receives data packets sentby the first base station according to the offload policy. In this way,resources of the offload base station may be utilized properly, andutilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 9 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9,the method includes the following:

901. An offload base station receives a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE.

902. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the configuration information may specifically includeconfigurations of an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer.

903. The offload base station receives the service of the UE sent by thefirst base station.

904. The offload base station encodes, according to a pre-obtainedallocation policy for RV numbers, the service by using an RV numbercorresponding to a cell that participates in offload and belongs to theoffload base station; or the offload base station encodes, according toa pre-obtained allocation policy for RV numbers, the service by using anRV number corresponding to each time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource used for sending theservice by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to theoffload base station.

The allocation policy indicates the RV number used by the cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station; or theallocation policy indicates the RV number used by each time-domainand/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resourceused for sending the service by the cell that participates in offloadand belongs to the offload base station.

Optionally, the offload base station receives, before step 904, theallocation policy for RV numbers that is sent by the first base station,where the allocation policy indicates the RV number used by the cellthat participates in offload and belongs to the offload base station; orthe allocation policy indicates the RV number used by each time-domainand/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resourceused for sending the service by the cell that participates in offloadand belongs to the offload base station.

Optionally, multiple cells belong to the offload base station. Whenreceiving the service sent by the first base station, the offload basestation determines which cell is used to send the service to the UE, andencodes the service in the sending process by using the RV numbercorresponding to the cell, so that the UE may decode the receivedservice by using the corresponding RV number.

Optionally, the cell that belongs to the offload base station may sendthe service to the UE for multiple times. In this case, the UE mayencode the service by using the RV number corresponding to thetime-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource (for example, a subframe or a frequency) of theservice sent each time.

905. The offload base station sends the encoded service to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: An allocation policy for RVnumbers is defined; and when the offload base station and the first basestation send a service to the UE, encoding is performed according to theallocation policy. In this way, multiple base stations may send the sameservice to the UE, and resources of each base station serving the UE areutilized properly, so that utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 10 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.10, the method includes the following:

1001. An offload base station receives a request message sent by a firstbase station, where the request message includes at least one piece ofservice information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, thefirst base station is a base station that establishes an RRC connectionwith the UE, and the offload base station is a base station serving theUE.

1002. The offload base station configures a resource configurationcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

1003. The offload base station receives a measurement notificationmessage sent by the first base station, where the measurementnotification message includes an identifier of the UE, the GAPparameter, and start time information of the GAP.

Optionally, the GAP parameter includes: at least one of a mode of theGAP, a measurement period of the GAP, the number of measurements withina specific period of the GAP, and a start position of the GAP.

1004. The offload base station receives the service of the UE sent bythe first base station.

Optionally, when the offload base station receives the service sent bythe first base station, the offload base station is forbidden to sendthe service to the UE when the GAP starts. Therefore, the offload basestation sends the service to the UE within a time when the UE monitors acell on a network side, so that the service sent by the offload basestation can be received by the UE.

1005. The offload base station sends the service to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, a step of receiving, by the offload base station, ameasurement notification message sent by the first base station isadded. In this way, the offload base station sends a service to the UEonly within a time when the UE monitors a cell of a network side, sothat the service sent by the offload base station can be received by theUE, and in addition, utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 11 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.11, the method includes the following:

1101. A UE receives a configuration message sent by a first basestation, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, where the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE, and the offload base station is at leastone base station serving the UE.

Optionally, a configuration list of the RB includes:

the configuration list of the RB includes configuration information ofat least one RB, where the configuration information of the RB includesat least one of the following items:

configuration information of a PDCP entity, configuration information ofan RLC entity list, and MAC configuration information, a logical channelconfiguration message, and physical layer configuration informationcorresponding to each RLC entity in the RLC entity list; an identifierof a service; offload indication information; the offload rule; andconfiguration information of radio resources.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information.

The offload rule indicates a transmission base station for each datapacket of the service of the UE, where the transmission base station isthe first base station or the offload base station.

Optionally, the configuration information of the radio resourcesincludes:

at least one of a physical cell identifier, a logical cell identifier, avirtual cell identifier, frequency information, carrier information,radio resource block information, subcarrier information, subframeinformation, time-domain information, and space-domain information.

1102. The UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration message, the UE mayconfigure the corresponding RB. When the configuration message includesthe configuration information of the at least one RB, the configurationinformation includes the configuration information of the PDCP entity,the configuration information of the RLC entity list, and the MACconfiguration information, logical channel configuration message, andphysical layer configuration information corresponding to each RLCentity in the RLC entity list. In this way, the UE may configure a PDCPlayer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, where the PDCPlayer includes at least one PDCP entity, the RLC layer includes at leastone RLC entity, the MAC layer includes at least one MAC entity, and thephysical layer includes at least one physical layer entity.

Specifically, one PDCP entity, at least two RLC entities, and at leasttwo MAC entities and at least two physical layer entities correspondingto the at least two RLC entities may be configured. For example, thePDCP entity corresponds to the first base station or the offload basestation, the two RLC entities correspond to the first base station andat least one offload base station respectively, or the two RLC instancescorrespond to at least two offload base stations respectively.

In this way, the UE may receive, at the at least two RLC entities, theservice sent by the at least two base stations.

In the foregoing technical solution, a UE receives a configurationmessage sent by a first base station, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of an RB and/or cell informationof an offload base station; the UE configures the RB corresponding tothe configuration message. In this way, the UE may receive a servicesent over an RB established by the offload base station, and resourcesof the offload base station are utilized properly, so that utilizationof network resources is improved.

FIG. 12 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.12, the method includes the following:

1201. A UE receives a configuration message sent by a first basestation, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, where the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE, and the offload base station is at leastone base station serving the UE.

1202. The UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

1203. The UE receives the service sent by the first base station and/orthe offload base station.

Optionally, step 1203 may specifically be that the UE receives, by usingthe configured RB, the service sent by the first base station and/or theoffload base station.

Specifically, the UE may receive, at a PDCP layer of the RB, the servicesent by the first base station or the offload base station, or receive,at a PDCP layer of the RB, the service sent by the first base station orthe offload base station, and receive, at an RLC entity of an RLC layer,the service sent by the first base station or the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, after step 1203, the method mayfurther include the following:

The UE decodes, according to an obtained allocation policy, the serviceby using an RV number of a cell corresponding to the service; or the UEdecodes, according to an obtained allocation policy, the service byusing an RV number of each time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource corresponding to theservice.

The allocation policy indicates an RV number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station and anRV number used by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to thefirst base station; or the allocation policy indicates an RV number usedby each time-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for sending the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station and anRV number used by each time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource used for sending theservice by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to the firstbase station.

Optionally, assuming that base stations sending the service of the UEinclude the first base station and an offload base station 1, whilecells that belong to the first base station include a cell 1 and a cell2, and cells that belong to the offload base station 1 include a cell 3and a cell 4, the allocation policy may indicate that: the RV numberused by the cell 1 is 0, the RV number used by the cell 2 is 2, the RVnumber used by the cell 3 is 3, and the RV number used by the cell 4is 1. When the UE receives the service in the cell 1, the UE decodes thereceived service by using 0.

It should be noted that in this implementation manner, step 1203 mayspecifically include the following:

The UE receives the same service sent by at least two base stations,where the at least two base stations are two base stations in the firstbase station and the offload base stations.

Specifically, the UE may receive, at the PDCP layer, the service sent bythe first base station, and receive, at an RLC entity of the RLC layer,the service sent by the offload base station.

In this implementation manner, the UE may receive services sent bymultiple base stations, and the services sent by the multiple basestations are the same. In comparison with the prior art in which a basestation sends a service to the UE for multiple times, in thisimplementation manner, resources of the multiple base stations may beutilized properly.

In the foregoing technical solution, the UE may receive the service sentby the offload base station. In this way, resources of the offload basestation are utilized properly, and utilization of network resources isimproved.

FIG. 13 is a schematic flowchart of another service transmission methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.13, the method includes the following:

1301. A UE receives a configuration message sent by a first basestation, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, where the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE, and the offload base station is at leastone base station serving the UE.

1302. The UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

1303. The UE monitors a cell that belongs to the first base stationand/or the offload base station.

Specifically, before step 1303, the UE receives at least one DRXparameter sent by the first base station, where the at least one DRXparameter corresponds to radio frequencies of the UE on a one-to-onebasis. In this way, the UE enters an on-duration and a sleep timeaccording to the DRX parameter to save power consumption. Step 1303 mayspecifically be monitoring a cell that belongs to the first base stationand/or the offload base station within the on-duration. And the firstbase station and the offload base station also send the service to theUE within the on-duration. In this way, the UE may save powerconsumption.

In an optional implementation manner, step 1303 may specifically includethe following:

The UE receives a cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication andthe cell information of the offload base station, which are sent by thefirst base station; and

the UE monitors a cell that belongs to the offload base station.

Specifically, the UE receives, within a previous on-duration before theoffload base station sends the service to the UE, the cross-cell orcross-carrier scheduling indication and the cell information of theoffload base station, which are sent by the first base station. Afterthe UE receives the cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indicationand the cell information of the offload base station, the UE monitorsthe cell that belongs to the offload base station within a nexton-duration.

In an optional implementation manner, step 1303 may further include thefollowing:

The UE monitors a cell that belongs to the first base station; and

the UE receives a cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication andthe cell information of the offload base station, which are sent by thefirst base station; and

the UE monitors a cell that belongs to the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, step 1303 may specifically includethe following:

The UE receives MAC control signaling sent by the first base station;and the UE monitors a cell that belongs to at least one base station inthe offload base stations.

In an optional implementation manner, step 1303 may specifically includethe following:

The UE monitors a cell that belongs to the first base station; and

when the UE receives the service sent by the first base station, thefirst base station monitors a cell that belongs to the offload basestation.

Specifically, the UE may preferentially monitor the cell that belongs tothe first base station within the on-duration. When a data packet sentby the first base station is received within the on-duration, the firstbase station monitors the cell that belongs to the offload base station.

In this implementation manner, a service of the UE may be sent by thefirst base station and the offload base station. In this way, resourcesof the offload base station are utilized properly.

It should be noted that step 1303 may be executed simultaneously withstep 1304, for example, when the service sent by the first base stationis received in step 1304, a cell that belongs to at least one basestation in the offload base stations is monitored.

1304. The UE receives the service sent by the first base station and/orthe offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, after step 1404, the method mayfurther include the following:

The UE depacketizes, at the at least one RLC entity, the servicereceived by at least one RLC entity, and transmits the servicedepacketized by the at least one RLC entity to a PDCP layer.

The UE uploads the service received by the PDCP layer to a higher layer.

Optionally, before the step in which the UE uploads the service receivedby the PDCP layer to a higher layer, the UE receives an offload rulesent by the first base station, where the offload rule indicates atransmission base station for each data packet of the service of the UE,where the transmission base station is the first base station or theoffload base station. In this way, data received by the PDCP layer maybe sorted according to the offload rule, and the sorted data is sent tothe higher layer. This may save power consumption of the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, a step of monitoring, by the UE, a cell that belongs to thefirst base station and/or the offload base station, is added. Therefore,the UE may accurately receive the service sent by the first base stationand/or offload base station. In addition, resources of the offload basestation are utilized properly, and utilization of network resources isimproved.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according toan embodiment of the present invention. The base station is a basestation that establishes an RRC connection with the UE. As shown in FIG.14, the base station includes a first sending unit 11 and a secondsending unit 12.

The first sending unit 11 is configured to send a request message to anoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

In this way, the offload base station may configure the PDCP layer, RLClayer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information.

Optionally, the service information may further include:

at least one of configuration coordination information of radioresources of the RB, an identifier of the RB, an identifier of an RAB,and offload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information. The meanings ofthe RB-based data offload information and packet-based data offloadinformation refers to the above embodiments.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base stationconfigures, according to the at least one piece of service information,the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding tothe at least one service, and then the first base station configures thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB.

In an optional implementation manner, the request message may furtherinclude: an identifier of the UE.

The second sending unit 12 is configured to send a configuration messageto the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration message, the UE mayconfigure the corresponding RB. Details refer to above embodiments.

In an optional implementation manner, the configuration list informationof the RB includes:

the configuration list of the RB includes configuration information ofat least one RB, where the configuration information of the RB includesat least one of the following items:

configuration information of a PDCP entity, configuration information ofan RLC entity list, and MAC configuration information, a logical channelconfiguration message, and physical layer configuration informationcorresponding to each RLC entity in the RLC entity list; an identifierof the service; the offload indication information; the offload rule;and configuration information of radio resources.

Optionally, the configuration information of the radio resources mayinclude:

at least one of a physical cell identifier, a logical cell identifier, avirtual cell identifier, frequency information, carrier information,radio resource block information, subcarrier information, time-domaininformation, and space-domain information.

In an optional implementation manner, the first sending unit 11 mayfurther be configured to send the service of the UE to the offload basestation.

In this way, the service of the UE may be sent by multiple basestations.

In the foregoing technical solution, the service of the UE may be sentto the UE through the first base station and/or offload base station. Incomparison with the prior art in which the service is sent to the UEuniformly by one base station, in the present invention, resources ofthe first base station and offload base station may be utilizedproperly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.15, the base station includes a first sending unit 21, a first receivingunit 22, and a second sending unit 23.

The first sending unit 21 is configured to send a request message to anoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

The first receiving unit 22 is configured to receive a response messagereturned by the offload base station, where the response messageincludes an identifier of the UE, and a status message and/or anindication message; where the status message includes a status messagefor rejecting the request message, or a status message for receiving therequest message, or a status message for modifying the request message;and the indication message includes an identifier and/or configurationinformation of an RB whose resource configuration is accepted by theoffload base station and/or an identifier of a corresponding RAB, and/oran identifier and/or configuration information of an RB whose resourceconfiguration is rejected by the offload base station and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB.

Optionally, after the offload base station receives the request message,the offload base station may return a response message to the first basestation according to a resource status and/or load condition of theoffload base station, where the response message includes the identifierof the UE, and the status message and/or the indication message. Byusing the first receiving unit 22, network resources may be maximized.

The second sending unit 23 is configured to send a configuration messageto the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

An offload rule defining unit 26 is configured to define an offload rulefor data packets of the service of the UE, where the offload ruleindicates a transmission base station for each data packet of theservice of the UE, where the transmission base station is the first basestation or the offload base station.

Optionally, the second sending unit 23 may further be configured to sendthe offload rule defined by the offload rule defining unit 26 to the UE;when the UE separately receives data packets sent by the first basestation and the offload base station, and receives, at a PDCP entity,data packets uploaded by different RLC entities, the UE may sortuploaded data according to the offload rule, with no need to depacketizethe uploaded data to obtain a sequence number of each data packet. Inthis way, power consumption of the UE may be saved.

In an optional implementation manner, the first sending unit 21 mayfurther be configured to send a cross-cell or cross-carrier schedulingindication and the cell information of the offload base station to theUE within a previous on-duration of the UE before the offload basestation sends the service to the UE, so that the UE monitors a cell thatbelongs to the offload base station.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, a first receiving unit is added and configured to receive aresponse message returned by the offload base station; therefore,network resources may be maximized.

FIG. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.16, the base station includes a first sending unit 31, a first receivingunit 32, a determining unit 33, an offload policy defining unit 34, anda second sending unit 35.

The first sending unit 31 is configured to send a request message to anoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

The first receiving unit 32 is configured to receive a resource statusreport message and/or channel resource information of the offload basestation sent by the offload base station, and/or, receive channelresource information of the offload base station sent by the UE.

The resource status report message includes the number of data packetsthat can be sent and/or the number of data packets waiting to be sent ina buffer, and the channel resource includes at least one of a channelquality indicator CQI, a PMI, and an RI.

The determining unit 33 is configured to determine a transmissioncapability of the offload base station according to the resource statusreport message and/or channel resource information received by the firstreceiving unit 32.

The offload policy defining unit 34 is configured to define an offloadpolicy for the data packets of the service of the UE according to thecapability of the offload base station, where the offload policyindicates the number of data packets sent by the offload base station tothe UE within a specific time.

Before the first base station defines the offload policy for the datapackets of the service of the UE according to the capability of theoffload base station, if the method includes defining, by the first basestation, an offload rule, the offload policy replaces the offload rule.

The second sending unit 35 is configured to send a configuration messageto the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

Optionally, the second sending unit 35 is configured to send the offloadpolicy to the UE.

Optionally, when the UE receives the offload policy, if the UE receivesan offload rule (refer to the first embodiment) before receiving theoffload policy, the UE replaces the offload rule with the offloadpolicy.

The first sending unit 31 may further be configured to send data packetscorresponding to the number of data packets of the service of the UE tothe offload base station.

The second sending unit 35 may further be configured to send datapackets beyond the data packets corresponding to the number of datapackets of the service of the UE to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, the number of data packets sent bythe offload base station to the UE within a specific time may bedetermined dynamically according to resource information of the offloadbase station. Therefore, network resources may be utilized properly, andutilization of the network resources is improved.

FIG. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.17, the base station includes a first sending unit 41, an allocationpolicy defining unit 42, and a second sending unit 43.

The first sending unit 41 is configured to send a request message to anoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

The allocation policy defining unit 42 is configured to define anallocation policy for redundancy version numbers, where the allocationpolicy indicates a redundancy version number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station and aredundancy version number used by a cell that participates in offloadand belongs to the first base station; or the allocation policyindicates a redundancy version number used by each time-domain and/orcode-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resource usedfor sending the service by a cell that participates in offload andbelongs to the offload base station and a redundancy version number usedby each time-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for sending the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station.

Optionally, the first sending unit 41 may further be configured to sendthe allocation policy to the UE, so that when the UE receives theservice in a cell that belongs to the offload base station, the UEdecodes the received service by using the redundancy version numbercorresponding to the cell or decodes the received service by using theredundancy version number corresponding to each time-domain and/orcode-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resource usedfor receiving the service in the cell.

The second sending unit 43 is configured to send a configuration messageto the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

Optionally, the first sending unit 41 may further be configured to sendthe service of the UE to at least two offload base stations; or

optionally, the first sending unit 41 may further be configured to sendthe service of the UE to at least one offload base station.

The second sending unit 43 is configured to send the service of the UEto the UE.

When the UE receives the service in a cell that belongs to the offloadbase station or first base station, the UE decodes received data byusing the RV number corresponding to the cell.

In the foregoing technical solution, at least two base stations may sendservices to the UE, and the services sent by the base stations are thesame. In comparison with the prior art in which a base station sends aservice to the UE for multiple times, in the embodiment of the presentinvention, resources of each offload base station may be betterutilized.

FIG. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UE. As shownin FIG. 18, the base station includes a first sending unit 51, a secondsending unit 52, and a first configuring unit 53.

The first sending unit 51 is configured to send a request message to anoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

The second sending unit 52 is configured to send a configuration messageto the UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

The first configuring unit 53 is configured to configure a measurementgap GAP parameter of the UE.

Optionally, the first sending unit 51 may further be configured to senda measurement notification message to the offload base station, wherethe measurement notification message includes an identifier of the UE,the GAP parameter, and start time information ion of the GAP, and themeasurement notification message is used to notify the offload basestation of measurement configuration information of at least one UEwhose service is offloaded by the base station.

When the offload base station receives the service sent by the firstbase station, the offload base station is forbidden to send the serviceto the UE when the GAP starts. Therefore, the offload base station sendsthe service to the UE within a time when the UE monitors a cell on anetwork side, so that the service sent by the offload base station canbe received by the UE.

Optionally, the second sending unit 52 may further be configured to sendthe GAP parameter to the UE.

Optionally, the GAP parameter includes:

at least one of a mode of the GAP, a measurement period of the GAP, thenumber of measurements within a specific period of the GAP, and a startposition of the GAP.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, steps of configuring a GAP parameter by the configuring unitand sending the GAP parameter to the offload base station and the UE areadded; the offload base station sends a service to the UE only within atime when the UE monitors a cell of a network side, so that the servicesent by the offload base station can be received by the UE, and inaddition, utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station serving the UE. As shown in FIG. 19, the base stationincludes a second receiving unit 61 and a second configuring unit 62.

The second receiving unit 61 is configured to receive a request messagesent by a first base station, where the request message includes atleast one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes QoS information of the service and/or configuration informationof an RB, and the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

Optionally, the service information may further include: at least one ofconfiguration coordination information of radio resources of the RB, anidentifier of the RB, an identifier of a radio access bearer (RAB), andoffload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information. The meanings ofRB-based data offload information and packet-based data offloadinformation refers to the above embodiments.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base stationconfigures, according to the at least one piece of service information,the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding tothe at least one service, and then the first base station configures thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB.

In an optional implementation manner, the request message may furtherinclude: an identifier of the UE.

The second configuring unit 62 is configured to configure a resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation.

Optionally, the second configuring unit 62 may specifically configurethe PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or RLC layer,MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding to the at leastone piece of service information.

In the foregoing technical solution, an offload base station receives arequest message sent by a first base station, and configures a resourceconfiguration corresponding to at least one piece of serviceinformation. In this way, resources of the offload base station areutilized properly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station serving the UE. As shown in FIG. 20, the base stationincludes a second receiving unit 71, a second configuring unit 72, and athird sending unit 73.

The second receiving unit 71 is configured to receive a request messagesent by a first base station, where the request message includes atleast one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes QoS information of the service and/or configuration informationof an RB, and the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE.

The second configuring unit 72 is configured to configure a resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation.

Optionally, the second configuring unit 72 may specifically configure aPDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, or an RLClayer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer of the RB corresponding to theat least one piece of service information.

Optionally, the second receiving unit 71 may further be configured toreceive the service of the UE sent by the first base station.

The third sending unit 73 is configured to send the service received bythe second receiving unit 71 to the UE.

In an optional implementation manner, the base station may furtherinclude:

a returning unit 74, configured to send a response message to the firstbase station, where the response message includes an identifier of theUE, and a status message and/or an indication message; where the statusmessage includes a status message for rejecting the request message, ora status message for receiving the request message, or a status messagefor modifying the request message; and the indication message includesan identifier and/or configuration information of an RB whose resourceconfiguration is accepted by the offload base station and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB, and/or an identifier and/orconfiguration information of an RB whose resource configuration isrejected by the offload base station and/or an identifier of acorresponding RAB.

Optionally, the returning unit 74 may return a response message to thefirst base station according to a resource status and/or load conditionof the offload base station, where the response message includes theidentifier of the UE, and the status message and/or the indicationmessage. By using the returning unit 74, network resources may bemaximized.

In an optional implementation manner, the second receiving unit 71 isfurther configured to receive a GAP parameter, the identifier of the UE,and start time information of the GAP, which are sent by the first basestation, where the start time information of the GAP indicates that theoffload base station is forbidden to send the service to the UE withinthe start time of the GAP.

In this implementation manner, the second receiving unit 71 receives theGAP parameter sent by the first base station. In this way, the basestation sends the service to the UE only within a time when the UEmonitors a cell on a network side, so that the service sent by the basestation can be received by the UE, and in addition, utilization ofnetwork resources is improved.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: The offload base stationreceives a service sent by the first base station, and sends the serviceto the UE; and the offload base station receives, at a higher layer (forexample, a PDCP layer or an RLC layer), the service sent by the firstbase station. In comparison with the prior art in which the service sentby the first base station is received at the physical layer, thissolution reduces a delay and improves service transmission efficiency.In addition, resources of the offload base station may be utilizedproperly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station serving the UE. As shown in FIG. 21, the base stationincludes a second receiving unit 81, a second configuring unit 82, agenerating unit 83, a fourth sending unit 84, and a third sending unit85.

The second receiving unit 81 is configured to receive a request messagesent by a first base station, where the request message includes atleast one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes QoS information of the service and/or configuration informationof an RB, and the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE.

The second configuring unit 82 is configured to configure a resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation.

Optionally, the second configuring unit 82 may specifically configure aPDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, or an RLClayer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer of the RB corresponding to theat least one piece of service information.

The generating unit 83 is configured to generate a resource statusreport message according to the offload base station; and/or, for theoffload base station to receive channel resource information sent by theUE relative to the offload base station, where the resource statusreport message includes the number of data packets that can be sentand/or the number of data packets waiting to be sent in a buffer, andthe channel resource includes at least one of a CQI, a PMI, and an RI.

The fourth sending unit 84 is configured to send the resource statusreport message and/or the channel resource information to the first basestation, so that the first base station calculates a transmissioncapability of the offload base station and defines an offload policyaccording to the transmission capability, where the offload policyindicates the number of data packets of the service sent by the offloadbase station to the UE within a specific time.

Optionally, the second receiving unit 81 may further be configured toreceive data packets corresponding to the number of data packets of theservice sent by the first base station.

The third sending unit 85 is configured to send the service received bythe second receiving unit 81 to the UE.

In an optional implementation manner, the fourth sending unit 84 isfurther configured to send indication information to the first basestation, where the indication information instructs the first basestation to send a cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication andan identifier of the offload base station to the UE within a previouson-duration of the UE before the offload base station sends the serviceto the UE, so that the UE monitors a cell that belongs to the offloadbase station.

In the foregoing technical solution, a first base station defines anoffload policy according to a capability of the base station, and thebase station receives a data packet sent by the first base stationaccording to the offload policy. In this way, resources of the basestation may be utilized properly, and utilization of network resourcesis improved.

FIG. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station serving the UE. As shown in FIG. 22, the base stationincludes a second receiving unit 91, a second configuring unit 92, anencoding unit 93, and a third sending unit 94.

The second receiving unit 91 is configured to receive a request messagesent by a first base station, where the request message includes atleast one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes QoS information of the service and/or configuration informationof an RB, and the first base station is a base station that establishesan RRC connection with the UE.

The second configuring unit 92 is configured to configure a resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation.

The second receiving unit 91 may further be configured to receive theservice sent by the first base station.

The encoding unit 93 is configured to encode, according to apre-obtained allocation policy for redundancy version numbers, theservice by using a redundancy version number corresponding to each cellthat belongs to the offload base station; or for the offload basestation to encode, according to a pre-obtained allocation policy forredundancy version numbers, the service by using a redundancy versionnumber corresponding to each subframe of each cell that belongs to theoffload base station.

The allocation policy indicates the redundancy version number used byeach cell that belongs to the offload base station; or the allocationpolicy indicates the redundancy version number used by each subframe ofeach cell that belongs to the offload base station.

The third sending unit 94 is configured to send the service to the UE.

Optionally, the service sent by the third sending unit 94 may bespecifically the same as the service sent by another offload basestation and the first base station.

In this way, multiple base stations may send the same service to the UE,and resources of each base station serving the UE are utilized properly,so that utilization of network resources is improved.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following steps are added: An allocation policy for RVnumbers is defined; and when the offload base station and the first basestation send a service to the UE, encoding is performed according to theallocation policy. In this way, multiple base stations may send the sameservice to the UE, and resources of each base station serving the UE areutilized properly, so that utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 23 is a schematic structural diagram of a UE according to anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 23, the UEincludes a third receiving unit 101 and a third configuring unit 102.

The third receiving unit 101 is configured to receive a configurationmessage sent by a first base station, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of the RB and/or cellinformation of the offload base station, where the first base station isa base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UE, and theoffload base station is at least one base station serving the UE.

Optionally, a configuration list of the RB includes:

the configuration list of the RB includes configuration information ofat least one RB, where the configuration information of the RB includesat least one of the following items:

configuration information of a PDCP entity, configuration information ofan RLC entity list, and MAC configuration information, a logical channelconfiguration message, and physical layer configuration informationcorresponding to each RLC entity in the RLC entity list; an identifierof a service; offload indication information; the offload rule; andconfiguration information of radio resources.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information.

The offload rule indicates a transmission base station for each datapacket of the service of the UE, where the transmission base station isthe first base station or the offload base station.

Optionally, the configuration information of the radio resourcesincludes:

at least one of a physical cell identifier, a logical cell identifier, avirtual cell identifier, frequency information, carrier information,radio resource block information, subcarrier information, time-domaininformation, and space-domain information.

The third configuring unit 102 is configured to configure thecorresponding RB according to the configuration message.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration message, the UE mayconfigure the corresponding RB. When the configuration message includesthe configuration information of the at least one RB, the configurationinformation includes the configuration information of the PDCP entity,the configuration information of the RLC entity list, and the MACconfiguration information, logical channel configuration message, andphysical layer configuration information corresponding to each RLCentity in the RLC entity list. In this way, the UE may configure thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, where the PDCPlayer includes at least one PDCP entity, the RLC layer includes at leastone RLC entity, the MAC layer includes at least one MAC entity, and thephysical layer includes at least one physical layer entity.

Specifically, one PDCP entity, at least two RLC entities, and at leasttwo MAC entities and at least two physical layer entities correspondingto the at least two RLC entities may be configured. For example, thePDCP entity corresponds to the first base station or the offload basestation, the two RLC instances correspond to the first base station andat least one offload base station respectively, or the two RLC instancescorrespond to at least two offload base stations respectively.

In this way, the UE may receive, at the at least two RLC entities, theservice sent by the at least two base stations.

In an optional implementation manner, the third receiving unit 101 mayfurther be configured to receive the service sent by the first basestation and/or the offload base station.

Optionally, the third receiving unit 101 may specifically receive, byusing the configured RB, the service sent by the first base stationand/or the offload base station.

Specifically, the third receiving unit may receive, at the PDCP layer ofthe RB, the service sent by the first base station or the offload basestation, or receive, at the PDCP layer of the RB, the service sent bythe first base station or the offload base station, and receive, at anRLC entity of the RLC layer, the service sent by the first base stationor the offload base station.

In the foregoing technical solution, a UE receives a configurationmessage sent by a first base station, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of an RB and/or cell informationof an offload base station; the UE configures the RB corresponding tothe configuration message. In this way, the UE may receive a servicesent over an RB established by the offload base station, and resourcesof the offload base station are utilized properly, so that utilizationof network resources is improved.

FIG. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of another UE according to anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 24, the UEincludes a third receiving unit 111, a third configuring unit 112, and adecoding unit 113.

The third receiving unit 111 is configured to receive a configurationmessage sent by a first base station, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of the RB and/or cellinformation of the offload base station, where the first base station isa base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UE, and theoffload base station is at least one base station serving the UE.

The third configuring unit 112 is configured to configure thecorresponding RB according to the configuration message.

The third receiving unit 111 is further configured to receive theservice sent by the first base station and/or the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, the third receiving unit 111 isfurther configured to receive a cross-cell or cross-carrier schedulingindication and the cell information of the offload base station, whichare sent by the first base station.

The decoding unit 113 is configured to decode, according to an obtainedallocation policy, the service by using an RV number of a cellcorresponding to the service; or to decode, according to an obtainedallocation policy, the service by using an RV number of a time-domainand/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resourceof a cell corresponding to the service.

The allocation policy indicates an RV number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station and anRV number used by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to thefirst base station; or

the allocation policy indicates an RV number used by each time-domainand/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resourceused for sending the service by a cell that participates in offload andbelongs to the offload base station and an RV number used by eachtime-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for sending the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station.

Optionally, the third receiving unit 111 may further be configured toreceive the same service sent by at least two base stations, where theat least two base stations are two base stations in the first basestation and the offload base stations. Specifically, the third receivingunit may receive, at a PDCP layer, the service sent by the first basestation, and receive, at an RLC entity of an RLC layer, the service sentby the offload base station.

In the foregoing technical solution, a UE may receive services sent bymultiple base stations, and the services sent by the multiple basestations are the same. In comparison with the prior art in which a basestation sends a service to the UE for multiple times, in thisimplementation manner, resources of the multiple base stations may beutilized properly.

FIG. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of another UE according to anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 25, the UEincludes a third receiving unit 121, a third configuring unit 122, and amonitoring unit 123.

The third receiving unit 121 is configured to receive a configurationmessage sent by a first base station, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of the RB and/or cellinformation of the offload base station, where the first base station isa base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UE, and theoffload base station is at least one base station serving the UE.

The third configuring unit 122 is configured to configure thecorresponding RB according to the configuration message.

The monitoring unit 123 is configured to monitor a cell that belongs tothe offload base station.

The UE may accurately receive the service sent by the first base stationand/or offload base station. In addition, the UE may save powerconsumption.

Optionally, the monitoring unit 123 is further configured to monitor acell that belongs to the first base station; when the UE receives a datapacket sent by the first base station, the monitoring unit is furtherconfigured to monitor the cell that belongs to the offload base station.In this way, a service of the UE may be sent by the first base stationand the offload base station. In this way, resources of the offload basestation are utilized properly.

Optionally, the third receiving unit 121 may further be configured toreceive MAC control signaling sent by the first base station.

The monitoring unit 123 may further be configured to monitor a cell thatbelongs to at least one base station in the offload base stations.

In this way, the UE may monitor the cell that belongs to the offloadbase station according to the MAC control signaling of the first basestation. Thereby, when the UE does not receive the MAC controlsignaling, the UE does not monitor the cell that belongs to the offloadbase station, thereby achieving an effect of saving power consumption.

In an optional implementation manner, the UE may further include:

a depacketizing unit, configured to depacketize, at the at least one RLCentity, the service received by at least one RLC entity, and transmitthe service depacketized by the at least one RLC entity to a PDCP layer;and

an uploading unit, configured to upload the service received by the PDCPlayer to a higher layer.

Optionally, before the uploading unit uploads the service received bythe PDCP layer to the higher layer, the UE receives an offload rule sentby the first base station, where the offload rule indicates atransmission base station for each data packet of the service of the UE,where the transmission base station is the first base station or theoffload base station. In this way, the uploading unit may sort,according to the offload rule, data received by the PDCP layer, and sendthe sorted data to the higher layer. This may save power consumption ofthe UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, the following step is added: The monitoring unit monitors acell that belongs to the offload base station. Thereby, the UE mayeffectively monitor cells under the offload base station and first basestation to achieve an objective of saving power consumption. Inaddition, resources of each base station are utilized properly.

FIG. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of a service transmissionsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 26, the service transmission system includes a first base station131, an offload base station 132, and a UE 133.

The first base station 131 is a base station that establishes an RRCconnection with the UE 133. The first base station in this embodimentmay be any base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UEaccording to the foregoing embodiment. For example, the first basestation may include a first sending unit and a second sending unit.

The first sending unit is configured to send a request message to theoffload base station, where the request message includes at least onepiece of service information, where the service information includes QoSinformation of a service and/or configuration information of an RB, theoffload base station is at least one base station in base stationsserving the UE, and the request message instructs the offload basestation to perform resource configuration according to the at least onepiece of service information.

The second sending unit is configured to send a configuration message tothe UE, where the configuration message includes configuration listinformation of the RB and/or cell information of the offload basestation, so that the UE configures the corresponding RB according to theconfiguration message.

The offload base station 132 is a base station serving the UE 133. Thefirst base station in this embodiment may be any base station servingthe UE according to the foregoing embodiment. For example, the offloadbase station 132 may include a second receiving unit and a secondconfiguring unit.

The second receiving unit is configured to receive the request messagesent by the first base station, where the request message includes theat least one piece of service information, where the service informationincludes the QoS information of the service and/or the configurationinformation of the RB, and the first base station is the base stationthat establishes the RRC connection with the UE.

The second configuring unit is configured to configure the resourceconfiguration corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation.

Optionally, there may be multiple offload base stations 132.

The UE 133 in this embodiment may be any UE provided by the foregoingembodiment. For example, the UE may include a third receiving unit and athird configuring unit.

The third receiving unit is configured to receive the configurationmessage sent by the first base station, where the configuration messageincludes the configuration list information of the RB and/or the cellinformation of the offload base station, where the first base station isthe base station that establishes the RRC connection with the UE, andthe offload base station is the at least one base station serving theUE.

The third configuring unit is configured to configure the correspondingRB according to the configuration message.

In the foregoing technical solution, a first base station sends arequest message to an offload base station; the offload base stationreceives the request message sent by the first base station, andestablishes an RB in the request message; the first base station sends aconfiguration message to a UE; the UE receives the configuration messageand configures the RB corresponding to the offload base station and/orfirst base station. Thereby, both the offload base station and the firstbase station may send services to the UE by using the established RB.Therefore, resources of the offload base station are utilized properly,and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 27 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according toan embodiment of the present invention. The base station is a basestation that establishes an RRC connection with the UE. As shown in FIG.27, the base station includes an output apparatus 141, a processor 142,and an input apparatus 143.

The processor 142 is configured to execute the following steps:

send a request message to an offload base station, where the requestmessage includes at least one piece of service information, where theservice information includes QoS information of a service and/orconfiguration information of an RB, the first base station is the basestation that establishes the RRC connection with the UE, the offloadbase station is at least one base station in base stations serving theUE, and the request message instructs the offload base station toperform resource configuration according to the at least one piece ofservice information; and

send a configuration message to the UE, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of the RB and/or cellinformation of the offload base station, so that the UE configures thecorresponding RB according to the configuration message.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

In this way, the offload base station may configure the PDCP layer, RLClayer, MAC layer, and physical layer, or RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer of the RB corresponding to the at least one piece ofservice information.

Optionally, the service information may further include:

at least one of configuration coordination information of radioresources of the RB, the identifier of the RB, the identifier of theRAB, and offload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information. The meanings ofRB-based data offload information and packet-based data offloadinformation refers to the above embodiments.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base stationconfigures, according to the at least one piece of service information,the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding tothe at least one service, and then the first base station configures thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB.

Optionally, the output apparatus 141 sends information output by theprocessor, to the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 142 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

send the service of the user terminal to the offload base station. Anoutput unit 141 further sends the service of the UE to the offload basestation.

Optionally, the service of the UE may be specifically sent by using theoutput apparatus 141.

In this way, the service of the UE may be sent by multiple basestations.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 142 is furtherconfigured to execute the following step:

receive a response message returned by the offload base station, wherethe response message includes an identifier of the UE, a status message,and/or an indication message;

where the status message includes a status message for rejecting therequest message, or a status message for receiving the request message,or a status message for modifying the request message; and theindication message includes an identifier and/or configurationinformation of an RB accepted to be established and/or an identifier ofa corresponding RAB, and/or an identifier and/or configurationinformation of an RB rejected to be established and/or an identifier ofa corresponding RAB.

Optionally, after the offload base station receives the request message,the offload base station may return a response message to the first basestation according to a resource status and/or load status of the offloadbase station, where the response message includes the identifier of theUE, and the status message and/or indication message.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 142 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

define an offload rule for data packets of the service of the UE, wherethe offload rule indicates a transmission base station for each datapacket of the service of the UE, where the transmission base station isthe first base station or the offload base station; and

send the offload rule to the UE.

After the UE receives the offload rule, when a PDCP entity receives datapackets uploaded by different RLC entities, the UE may sort uploadeddata according to the offload rule, with no need to depacketize theuploaded data to obtain a sequence number of each data packet. In thisway, power consumption of the UE may be saved.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 142 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

receive a resource status report message and/or channel resourceinformation of the offload base station sent by the offload basestation, and/or, receive channel resource information of the offloadbase station sent by the UE;

where the resource status report message includes the number of datapackets that can be sent and/or the number of data packets waiting to besent in a buffer, and the channel resource includes at least one of achannel quality indicator channel quality indicator CQI, a PMI, and anRI.

In this implementation manner, the processor 142 may further beconfigured to execute the following step: determine a transmissioncapability of the offload base station according to the resource statusreport message and/or channel resource information.

Optionally, the processor 142 further executes the following step:

define an offload policy for the data packets of the service of the UEaccording to the capability of the offload base station, where theoffload policy indicates the number of data packets sent by the offloadbase station to the UE within a specific time.

Optionally, the processor is further configured to execute the followingsteps:

send the offload policy to the user terminal, so that the user terminalreplaces the offload rule with the offload policy;

send data packets corresponding to the number of data packets of theservice of the user terminal to the offload base station; and

send data packets beyond data packets corresponding to the number ofdata packets of the service of the user terminal to the user terminal.

In this implementation manner, the number of data packets of the serviceof the UE transmitted in each corresponding RB may be determineddynamically according to resource information of the base station towhich the RB belongs. Therefore, network resources may be utilizedproperly, and utilization of the network resources is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 142 is furtherconfigured to execute the following step: send a cross-cell orcross-carrier scheduling indication and the cell information of theoffload base station to the UE within a previous on-duration of the UEbefore the offload base station sends the service to the UE, so that theUE monitors the cell that belongs to the offload base station.

In an optional implementation manner, the base station may furtherinclude:

a memory, configured to store programs executed by the processor 142.

In the foregoing technical solution, the first base station may send theservice of the UE to the offload base station to which the RBcorresponding to the service belongs, so that the offload base stationsends the service to the UE. In this way, resources of the offload basestation are utilized properly, and utilization of network resources isimproved.

FIG. 28 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UE. As shownin FIG. 28, the base station includes an input apparatus 151, aprocessor 152, and an output apparatus 153.

The processor 152 is configured to execute the following steps:

send a request message to an offload base station, where the requestmessage includes at least one piece of service information, where theservice information includes QoS information of a service and/orconfiguration information of an RB, the first base station is the basestation that establishes the RRC connection with the UE, the offloadbase station is at least one base station in base stations serving theUE, and the request message instructs the offload base station toestablish the RB corresponding to the at least one piece of serviceinformation;

send a configuration message to the UE, where the configuration messageincludes configuration list information of the RB corresponding to theservice and/or cell information of the offload base station, so that theUE configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage;

configure a measurement gap GAP parameter of the UE;

send a measurement notification message to the offload base station,where the measurement notification message includes an identifier of theUE, the GAP parameter, and start time information of the GAP, and themeasurement notification message is used to notify the offload basestation of measurement configuration information of at least one UEwhose service is offloaded by the base station; and

send the GAP parameter to the UE.

In the foregoing technical solution, on the basis of the foregoingembodiment, steps of configuring a GAP parameter by the configuring unitand sending the GAP parameter to the offload base station and the UE areadded; the offload base station sends a service to the UE only within atime when the UE monitors a cell of a network side, so that the servicesent by the offload base station can be received by the UE, and inaddition, utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 29 is a schematic structural diagram of another base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station isa base station serving the UE. As shown in FIG. 29, the base stationincludes an input apparatus 161, a processor 162, an output apparatus163, and a memory 164.

The processor 162 is configured to execute the following steps:

receive a request message sent by a first base station, where therequest message includes at least one of an identifier of an RB, anidentifier of the user terminal, QoS information of the servicecorresponding to the RB, configuration information of the RB, and anidentifier of an RAB corresponding to the RB, and the first base stationis a base station that establishes an RRC connection with the userterminal; and

configure a resource configuration corresponding to the at least onepiece of service information.

The memory 164 stores the resource configuration.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RB includes:configuration information of a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer,and a physical layer, or configuration information of an RLC layer, aMAC layer, and a physical layer.

Optionally, the service information may further include:

at least one of configuration coordination information of radioresources of the RB, the identifier of the RB, the identifier of theRAB, and offload indication information.

Optionally, the configuration coordination information of the radioresources of the RB includes at least one of a physical cell identifier,a logical cell identifier, a virtual cell identifier, frequencyinformation, carrier information, radio resource block information,subcarrier information, subframe information, time-domain information,and space-domain information.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information. The meanings ofRB-based data offload information and packet-based data offloadinformation refers to the above embodiments.

Optionally, when the offload indication information includes thepacket-based data offload information, the offload base stationconfigures, according to the at least one piece of service information,the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB corresponding tothe at least one service, and then the first base station configures thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RB.

In an optional implementation manner, the request message may furtherinclude:

an identifier of the UE.

Optionally, the processor 162 may be specifically configured to executethe following step: configure the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, andphysical layer, or RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer of the RBcorresponding to the at least one piece of service information.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 162 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

receive the service of the user terminal sent by the first base station;and

an output unit sends the service to the user terminal.

The base station may receive the service sent by the first base station(for example, the SDU data of the PDCP layer or RLC layer). Incomparison with the prior art in which the service sent by the firstbase station is received at the physical layer, this solution reduces adelay and improves service transmission efficiency; in addition,resources of the base station may be utilized properly, and utilizationof network resources is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 162 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

generate a response message, where the response message includes theidentifier of the UE, and a status message and/or an indication message;where the status message includes a status message for rejecting therequest message, or a status message for receiving the request message,or a status message for modifying the request message; and theindication message includes an identifier and/or configurationinformation of an RB whose resource configuration is accepted by theoffload base station and/or an identifier of a corresponding RAB, and/oran identifier and/or configuration information of an RB whose resourceconfiguration is rejected by the offload base station and/or anidentifier of a corresponding RAB.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 162 may further beconfigured to execute the following steps:

generate a resource status report message; and/or, for the offload basestation to receive channel resource information sent by the UE relativeto the offload base station, where the resource status report messageincludes the number of data packets that can be sent and/or the numberof data packets waiting to be sent in a buffer, and the channel resourceincludes at least one of a CQI, a PMI, and an RI; and send the resourcestatus report message and/or the channel resource information to thefirst base station, so that the first base station calculates atransmission capability of the offload base station and defines anoffload policy according to the transmission capability, where theoffload policy indicates the number of data packets of the service sentby the offload base station to the user terminal within a specific time.

Optionally, the processor 162 may further be configured to execute thefollowing step: receive data packets corresponding to the number of datapackets of the service sent by the first base station.

Optionally, the processor 162 may further be configured to execute thefollowing steps:

generate indication information, where the indication informationinstructs the first base station to send a cross-cell or cross-carrierscheduling indication and an identifier of the offload base station tothe UE within a previous on-duration of the UE before the offload basestation sends the service to the UE; and

send the indication information to the first base station, so that theUE monitors a cell that belongs to the offload base station.

In this implementation manner, the first base station defines an offloadpolicy according to a capability of the base station, and the basestation receives a data packet sent by the first base station accordingto the offload policy. In this way, resources of the base station may beutilized properly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 162 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

encode, according to a pre-obtained allocation policy for redundancyversion numbers, the service by using a redundancy version numbercorresponding to a cell that participates in offload and belongs to theoffload base station; or

encode, according to a pre-obtained allocation policy for redundancyversion numbers, the service by using a redundancy version numbercorresponding to each time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource used for sending theservice by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to theoffload base station;

where the allocation policy indicates the redundancy version number usedby the cell that participates in offload and belongs to the offload basestation; or the allocation policy indicates the redundancy versionnumber used by each time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource used for sending theservice by the cell that participates in offload and belongs to theoffload base station.

In this implementation manner, multiple base stations may send the sameservice to the UE, and resources of each base station serving the UE areutilized properly, so that utilization of network resources is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 162 may further beconfigured to execute the following step: receive a measurementnotification message sent by the first base station, where themeasurement notification message includes the identifier of the UE, theGAP parameter, and start time information of the GAP.

In the foregoing technical solution, resources of an offload basestation may be utilized properly, so that utilization of networkresources is improved.

In the foregoing technical solution, the offload base station receives arequest message sent by a first base station, and establishes an RB inthe request message. In this way, resources of the offload base stationare utilized properly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

FIG. 30 is a schematic structural diagram of another UE according to anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 30, the UEincludes an input apparatus 171, a processor 172, an output apparatus173, and a memory 174.

The processor 172 is configured to execute the following steps:

receive a configuration message sent by a first base station, where theconfiguration message includes configuration list information of the RBand/or cell information of the offload base station, where the firstbase station is a base station that establishes an RRC connection withthe UE, and the offload base station is at least one base stationserving the UE; and

configure the corresponding RB according to the configuration message.

The memory 174 stores the configured RB.

Optionally, a configuration list of the RB includes:

the configuration list of the RB includes configuration information ofat least one RB, where the configuration information of the RB includesat least one of the following items:

configuration information of a PDCP entity, configuration information ofan RLC entity list, and MAC configuration information, a logical channelconfiguration message, and physical layer configuration informationcorresponding to each RLC entity in the RLC entity list; an identifierof a service; offload indication information; the offload rule; andconfiguration information of radio resources.

The offload indication information includes RB-based data offloadinformation or packet-based data offload information.

The offload rule indicates a transmission base station for each datapacket of the service of the UE, where the transmission base station isthe first base station or the offload base station.

Optionally, the configuration information of the radio resourcesincludes:

at least one of a physical cell identifier, a logical cell identifier, avirtual cell identifier, frequency information, carrier information,radio resource block information, subcarrier information, time-domaininformation, and space-domain information.

Optionally, after receiving the configuration message, the UE mayconfigure the corresponding RB. When the configuration message includesthe configuration information of the at least one RB, the configurationinformation includes the configuration information of the PDCP entity,the configuration information of the RLC entity list, and the MACconfiguration information, logical channel configuration message, andphysical layer configuration information corresponding to each RLCentity in the RLC entity list. In this way, the UE may configure thePDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, where the PDCPlayer includes at least one PDCP entity, the RLC layer includes at leastone RLC entity, the MAC layer includes at least one MAC entity, and thephysical layer includes at least one physical layer entity.

Specifically, the processor 172 executes the following step:

configure the PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layeraccording to the configuration message;

where the PDCP layer includes at least one PDCL entity, the RLC layerincludes at least one RLC entity, the MAC layer includes at least oneMAC entity, and the physical layer includes at least one physical layerentity.

In this way, the UE may receive, at at least two RLC entities, theservice sent by at least two base stations.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 172 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

receive the service sent by the first base station and/or the offloadbase station.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 172 may further beconfigured to execute the following step:

decode, according to an obtained allocation policy, the service by usinga redundancy version number of a cell corresponding to the service; ordecode, according to an obtained allocation policy, the service by usinga redundancy version number of a time-domain and/or code-domain and/orfrequency-domain and/or space-domain resource of a cell corresponding tothe service;

where the allocation policy indicates a redundancy version number usedby a cell that participates in offload and belongs to the offload basestation and a redundancy version number used by a cell that participatesin offload and belongs to the first base station; or

the allocation policy indicates a redundancy version number used by eachtime-domain and/or code-domain and/or frequency-domain and/orspace-domain resource used for sending the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the offload base station and aredundancy version number used by each time-domain and/or code-domainand/or frequency-domain and/or space-domain resource used for sendingthe service by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to thefirst base station.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 172 may further beconfigured to execute the following steps:

receive a cross-cell or cross-carrier scheduling indication and the cellinformation of the offload base station, which are sent by the firstbase station; and

monitor the cell that belongs to the offload base station.

Optionally, the UE may specifically further include a radio frequencyapparatus, configured to monitor the cell that belongs to the offloadbase station.

In this implementation manner, the service sent by the first basestation and/or offload base station may be accurately received. Inaddition, the UE may save power consumption.

Optionally, the processor 172 may further be configured to execute thefollowing steps:

monitor the cell that belongs to the first base station; and

when a data packet sent by the first base station is received, the radiofrequency unit monitors the cell that belongs to the offload basestation.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 172 may further beconfigured to execute the following steps:

receive MAC control signaling sent by the first base station; and

monitor a cell that belongs to at least one base station in the offloadbase stations.

In this way, the UE may monitor the cell that belongs to the offloadbase station according to the MAC control signaling of the first basestation. Thereby, when the UE does not receive the MAC controlsignaling, the UE does not monitor the cell that belongs to the offloadbase station, thereby achieving an effect of saving power consumption.

In an optional implementation manner, the processor 172 may further beconfigured to execute the following steps:

depacketize the service received by the at least one RLC entity, at theat least one RLC entity, and transmit the service depacketized by the atleast one RLC entity to the PDCP layer; and

upload the service received by the PDCP layer to a higher layer.

In the foregoing technical solution, a UE may receive services sent bymultiple base stations, and the services sent by the multiple basestations are the same. In comparison with the prior art in which a basestation sends a service to the UE for multiple times, in thisimplementation manner, resources of the multiple base stations may beutilized properly.

FIG. 31 is a schematic structural diagram of a service transmissionsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 31, the service transmission system includes a first base station181, an offload base station 182, and a UE 183.

The first base station 181 is a base station that establishes an RRCconnection with the UE 183. The first base station in this embodimentmay be any base station that establishes an RRC connection with the UEaccording to the foregoing embodiment. For example, the first basestation 181 may include an output apparatus, a processor, and an inputapparatus.

The processor is configured to execute the following steps:

send a request message to the offload base station, where the requestmessage includes at least one piece of service information, where theservice information includes QoS information of a service and/orconfiguration information of an RB, and the request message instructsthe offload base station to perform resource configuration according tothe at least one piece of service information; and

send a configuration message to the user terminal, where theconfiguration message includes configuration list information of the RBand/or cell information of the offload base station, so that the userterminal configures the corresponding RB according to the configurationmessage.

The offload base station 182 is a base station serving the UE 183. Thefirst base station in this embodiment may be any base station servingthe UE according to the foregoing embodiment. For example, the offloadbase station 182 may include an input apparatus, a processor, an outputapparatus, and a memory.

The processor is configured to execute the following steps:

receive the request message sent by the first base station, where therequest message includes at least one of an identifier of the RB, anidentifier of the user terminal, and the QoS information of the servicecorresponding to the RB, the configuration information of the RB, and anidentifier of an RAB corresponding to the RB; and

configure the resource configuration corresponding to the at least onepiece of service information.

The memory stores the resource configuration.

The UE 813 in this embodiment may be any UE provided by the foregoingembodiment. For example, the UE may include an input apparatus, aprocessor, an output apparatus, and a memory.

The processor is configured to execute the following steps:

receive the configuration message sent by the first base station, wherethe configuration message includes the configuration list information ofthe RB and/or the cell information of the offload base station, wherethe first base station is the base station that establishes the RRCconnection with the user terminal, and the offload base station is theat least one base station serving the user terminal; and

configure the corresponding RB according to the configuration message.

The memory stores the configured RB.

In the foregoing technical solution, both the offload base station andthe first base station may send services to the UE by using theestablished RB. Therefore, resources of the offload base station areutilized properly, and utilization of network resources is improved.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or a partof the processes of the methods in the embodiments may be implemented bya computer program instructing relevant hardware. The program may bestored in a computer readable storage medium. When the program runs, theprocesses of the methods in the embodiments are performed. The foregoingstorage medium may include: a magnetic disk, an optical disc, aread-only memory (ROM), or a random access memory (RAM).

The foregoing descriptions are merely exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention, but are not intended to limit the present invention.Any equivalent modifications made according to the claims of the presentinvention still fall within the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: sending, by a first basestation, a request message to a second base station, wherein the requestmessage comprises quality of service (QoS) information of a service andconfiguration information of a radio bearer (RB) for enabling the secondbase station to establish the RB for the service, wherein the first basestation establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection with aterminal device, and the second base station is a serving base stationof the terminal device; and in response to the request message,receiving, by the first base station from the second base station, aresponse message, wherein the response message comprises an identifierof the user terminal, and an indication message, the indication messagecomprises an identifier of a radio access bearer (RAB) corresponding tothe RB whose resource configuration is accepted; in response to theresponse message, sending, by the first base station, a configurationmessage to the terminal device, wherein the configuration messagecomprises cell information of the second base station and/or aconfiguration list information comprising information of the RB forenabling the terminal device to configure the RB; and sending, by thefirst base station, data of the service of the terminal device to thesecond base station for enabling the second base station to send thedata to the terminal device, and sending, by the first base station, thedata of the service of the terminal device to the terminal device,wherein the configuration information of the RB also indicates that adata packet transmitted by the second base station is same as a datapacket transmitted by the first base station.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining, by the first base station, anallocation policy of redundancy version numbers, wherein: the allocationpolicy indicates a redundancy version number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the second base station and aredundancy version number used by a cell that participates in offloadand belongs to the first base station, or the allocation policyindicates a redundancy version number used by a resource for sendingdata of the service by a cell that participates in offload and belongsto the second base station and a redundancy version number used by aresource for sending data of the service by a cell that participates inoffload and belongs to the first base station; and sending, by the firstbase station, the allocation policy of redundancy version numbers to theterminal device.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request messagefurther comprises RB-based data offload information or packet-based dataoffload information, wherein: when the request message further comprisesthe RB-based data offload information, the configuration information ofthe RB comprises: configuration information of a packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a media accesscontrol (MAC) layer, and a physical layer; and when the request messagefurther comprises the packet-based data offload information, theconfiguration information of the RB comprises: configuration informationof an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, and theconfiguration information of the RB does not comprise information of apacket data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.
 4. A first base station,comprising: a processor; and a transceiver coupled with the processorand configured to: send a request message to a second base station,wherein the request message comprises quality of service (QoS)information of a service and configuration information of a radio bearer(RB) for enabling the second base station to establish the RB for theservice, wherein the first base station establishes a radio resourcecontrol (RRC) connection with a terminal device, and the second basestation is a serving base station of the terminal device; in response tothe request message, receive, from the second base station, a responsemessage, wherein the response message comprises an identifier of theuser terminal, and an indication message, the indication messagecomprises an identifier of a radio access bearer (RAB) corresponding tothe RB whose resource configuration is accepted; in response to theresponse message, send a configuration message to the terminal device,wherein the configuration message comprises cell information of thesecond base station and/or a configuration list information comprisinginformation of the RB for enabling the terminal device to configure theRB; and send data of the service of the terminal device to the secondbase station for enabling the second base station to send the data tothe terminal device, and send the data of the service of the terminaldevice to the terminal device, wherein the configuration information ofthe RB also indicates that a data packet transmitted by the second basestation is same as a data packet transmitted by the first base station.5. The first base station of claim 4, wherein: the processor isconfigured to determine an allocation policy of redundancy versionnumbers, wherein: the allocation policy indicates a redundancy versionnumber used by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to thesecond base station and a redundancy version number used by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station, or theallocation policy indicates a redundancy version number used by aresource for sending data of the service by a cell that participates inoffload and belongs to the second base station and a redundancy versionnumber used by a resource for sending data of the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station; and thetransceiver is further configured to send the allocation policy ofredundancy version numbers to the terminal device.
 6. The first basestation of claim 4, wherein the request message further comprisesRB-based data offload information or packet-based data offloadinformation, wherein: when the request message further comprises theRB-based data offload information, the configuration information of theRB comprises: configuration information of a packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a media accesscontrol (MAC) layer, and a physical layer; and when the request messagefurther comprises the packet-based data offload information, theconfiguration information of the RB comprises: configuration informationof an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer, and theconfiguration information of the RB does not comprise information of apacket data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.
 7. An apparatusconfigured for use in a first base station, the apparatus comprising: astorage medium comprising executable instructions; and a processor,wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor,cause the apparatus to: trigger a transceiver of the first base stationto send a request message to a second base station, wherein the requestmessage comprises quality of service (QoS) information of a service andconfiguration information of a radio bearer (RB) for enabling the secondbase station to establish the RB for the service, wherein the first basestation establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection with aterminal device, and the second base station is a serving base stationof the terminal device; and in response to the request message, triggera transceiver of the first base station to receive a response message,wherein the response message comprises an identifier of the userterminal, and an indication message, the indication message comprises anidentifier of a radio access bearer (RAB) corresponding to the RB whoseresource configuration is accepted by the second base station; inresponse to the response message, trigger the transceiver of the firstbase station to send a configuration message to the terminal device,wherein the configuration message comprises cell information of thesecond base station and/or a configuration list information comprisinginformation of the RB for enabling the terminal device to configure theRB; and trigger the transceiver of the first base station to send dataof the service of the terminal device to the second base station forenabling the second base station to send the data to the terminaldevice, and trigger the transceiver of the first base station to sendthe data of the service of the terminal device to the terminal device,wherein the configuration information of the RB also indicates that adata packet transmitted by the second base station is same as a datapacket transmitted by the first base station.
 8. The apparatus of claim7, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor,further cause the apparatus to: determine an allocation policy ofredundancy version numbers, wherein: the allocation policy indicates aredundancy version number used by a cell that participates in offloadand belongs to the second base station and a redundancy version numberused by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to the firstbase station, or the allocation policy indicates a redundancy versionnumber used by a resource for sending data of the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the second base station and aredundancy version number used by a resource for sending data of theservice by a cell that participates in offload and belongs to the firstbase station; and trigger the transceiver of the first base station tosend the allocation policy of redundancy version numbers to the terminaldevice for the terminal device.
 9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein therequest message further comprises RB-based data offload information orpacket-based data offload information, wherein: when the request messagefurther comprises the RB-based data offload information, theconfiguration information of the RB comprises: configuration informationof a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control(RLC) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, and a physical layer;and when the request message further comprises the packet-based dataoffload information, the configuration information of the RB comprises:configuration information of an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physicallayer, and the configuration information of the RB does not compriseinformation of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.
 10. Acommunication system, comprising: a first base station configured to:send a request message to a second base station, wherein the requestmessage comprises quality of service (QoS) information of a service andconfiguration information of a radio bearer (RB) for enabling the secondbase station to establish the RB for the service, and the first basestation is configured to establish a radio resource control (RRC)connection with a terminal device; in response to the request message,receiving, from the second base station, a response message, wherein theresponse message comprises an identifier of the user terminal, and anindication message, the indication message comprises an identifier of aradio access bearer (RAB) corresponding to the RB whose resourceconfiguration is accepted; in response to the response message, send aconfiguration message to the terminal device, wherein the configurationmessage comprises cell information of the second base station and/or aconfiguration list information comprising information of the RB forenabling the terminal device to configure the RB; and send data of theservice of the terminal device to the second base station for enablingthe second base station to send the data to the terminal device, andsend the data of the service of the terminal device to the terminaldevice, wherein the configuration information of the RB also indicatesthat a data packet transmitted by the second base station is same as adata packet transmitted by the first base station; and wherein thesecond base station is configured to: receive the request message fromthe first base station; send the response message to the first basestation, and establish the RB for the service based on the QoSinformation and the configuration information of the RB, wherein thesecond base station is a serving base station of the terminal device.11. The communication system of claim 10, wherein the first base stationis further configured to: determine an allocation policy of redundancyversion numbers, wherein: the allocation policy indicates a redundancyversion number used by a cell that participates in offload and belongsto the second base station and a redundancy version number used by acell that participates in offload and belongs to the first base station,or the allocation policy indicates a redundancy version number used by aresource for sending data of the service by a cell that participates inoffload and belongs to the second base station and a redundancy versionnumber used by a resource for sending data of the service by a cell thatparticipates in offload and belongs to the first base station; and sendthe allocation policy of redundancy version numbers to the terminaldevice.
 12. The communication system of claim 10, wherein the requestmessage further comprises RB-based data offload information orpacket-based data offload information, wherein: when the request messagefurther comprises the RB-based data offload information, theconfiguration information of the RB comprises: configuration informationof a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control(RLC) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, and a physical layer;and when the request message further comprises the packet-based dataoffload information, the configuration information of the RB comprises:configuration information of an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physicallayer, and the configuration information of the RB does not compriseinformation of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.